This invention relates in general to feeding systems used for raising poultry and other domestic birds and animals on a commercial scale. In particular, this invention relates to the feeder apparatus portion of such feeding systems which deliver and present the feed to the point of consumption.
In today's competitive marketplace, animal husbandry operations utilizing automatic feeding systems are commonplace. The automated systems provide greater control over feeding frequencies and the quantities of feed delivered, and thereby increase production quality while simultaneously saving on labor costs. One of the most important system components of an effective automated feeding system is the feeder unit utilized to deliver and present the feed to consuming scores of birds and animals. Ideally, a single design of feeder could be used for feeding a wide variety of animals, in both kind and dimension. However, due to the number of different conditions which must be satisfied when feeding a particular type and/or size of bird or animal, prior art feeders have not attained satisfactory versatility in this regard.
For example, in feeding brood-size chickens or turkeys, it is normally desirable to maintain high feed levels within the feeder units in order to facilitate access to the feed by the young birds. However, when the birds quickly grow larger, high feed levels may allow the birds to spill feed out of the feeder and onto another surface, which may be acceptable in certain applications, but unacceptable or undesirable in others. Upon still further growth, it may be desirable to raise the feeders off the surface upon which the birds are feeding from, and still be able to fully control the feed levels within the feeder, as well as whether the consuming birds or animals can cause feed to spill from the feeder unit.